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Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Visio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Business Process Design
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (2nd)
Visio
Ranking in Business Process Design
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Mind Mapping Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 10.9%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visio is 12.5%, down from 13.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Milan Sterba - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient documentation generation through organized model structure with a good price-performance ratio
Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not easy for even experienced users to find their way without guidance. This is not the most user-friendly solution.
Tugrul TASCI - PeerSpot reviewer
We have seen return on investment in the form of time savings but should have more design tools
I am generally using Visio to create some diagrams Visio should implement more complex tools or graphics to facilitate processing and use flexible templates. It should allow users to easily drag and drop some previously created diagrams. The tools supplied or provided are very basic, and there…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"A feature I like most about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is its ease of use."
"Sparx offers good flexibility."
"We could capture the process models around 24 countries with all their local variations."
"It is simple to build the first model for the solution."
"Sparx has got a range of modeling features, and I am comfortable with all its offering. I've used a lot of tools over the phone. I found EA Spark, probably the most feature rich product all in all compared to other products. The solution is very cost-effective and that is its best feature. It's a very good delivery architecture tool, which also has enterprise architecture capabilities, and it's got full life cycle processes and software development. So for me, it's a pretty comprehensive tool"
"The features I find most valuable is the ability to create a document and then put it into a OneCare artifact."
"Simplified our task at maintaining architecture information and traceability with requirements."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and adaptability of Sparx Enterprise Architect."
"It is easy to learn and implement."
"The solution is finely stable."
"It is very easy for people to start using this tool, and we can import Visio templates that are already published by vendors such as Azure without any issue."
"What I like most about the solution is that It's quite easy to use."
"What I like about it is that the templates are easily findable and usable, and they are usually created for other software packages. It seems to be pretty much widely adopted in the industry."
"We are all familiar with it, and it is easy to use. There is a lot of flexibility, and you can add shapes if you want."
"The interface of the solution is very good. It's easy to navigate."
"It has a lot of great features."
 

Cons

"The presentation graphics need to be improved in future builds."
"Greater OMG UML and XMI compliance"
"The dashboard and connectivity could be improved."
"One room for improvement in Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is that it's not very friendly. Another room for improvement in the tool is that it doesn't enable you to import the metadata from a database very easily, so reverse engineering of a database was very difficult. Its database modeling and entity-relationship modeling functions need improvement."
"Even if there are web-based tools in the Enterprise Architecture tool ecosystem (like Prolaborate), the main modeling application is still a fat client application."
"It can be improved in the area of shared documentation. The idea is that the architecture tool can call back to an enterprise asset, pull that information, and link that as a sub-artifact."
"More challenging than other tools to maintain documents and document versions for an architecture board review."
"The UI is a little bit outdated. It should be more fresh and clean."
"It thinks that it knows what you want to do, but it doesn't. It has a way of behaving that can be very frustrating from time to time. Either it moves things about because it thinks its placement should be at a certain place, or it's keeping track of things that you don't necessarily see, so it moves something elsewhere."
"There are too many features."
"Visio can be more user-friendly."
"There should be more items available from a variety of other products that can be integrated."
"Visio is not as scalable as other tools due to the proprietary restriction. You cannot customize it or scale it up like the way you do with Trello or Jira. Microsoft places restrictions on things that you can do with Visio."
"I would like to see traceability. It doesn't have it. You cannot find one object amongst several sheets of Visio diagrams."
"The auto-routing feature could be better."
"Searching for specific templates within the program can be difficult. For example, if I need a template for an electrical diagram with certain symbols, it can be challenging to find it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This product has a paid license, with a yearly subscription option."
"In terms of cost, Sparx EA is probably one of the cheapest tools I have ever used."
"Pricing and licensing are suitable even for small companies."
"Its price is very good for the value that you get with it."
"The licensing is not as expensive as some of the other data modeling tools such as Erwin."
"It's reasonably priced for large organizations."
"Use floating licenses strategically."
"They have the price on their site for the enterprise version, and we do receive a small discount."
"Visio is expensive."
"We have about 10 to 15 people with Visio licenses in my company, but I wasn't involved in the direct negotiation of the prices since this was taken care of by my administrative office."
"I give the cost of Visio a five out of ten."
"It has a lower price point than the competition."
"We're in a Visio plan that is like $15 a month per user. At the moment, it is just the standard licensing fees that I'm aware of."
"I don't have any issue with the pricing. It has a subscription-based model, and the subscription is done on a yearly basis. Of course, we need internal approvals in place."
"There is a licensing fee, but it is fairly priced."
"The cost of the software is reasonably priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
One of the reasons many public sector institutions in the Czech Republic use it is that it provides a very good price-performance ratio. While it might be cumbersome to learn, it still delivers exc...
What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not ...
How easy is it to migrate process flow charts (modeled using tools like Visio) into Bizagi?
I have been using Bizagi with a major project for a state government agency for about four years now. It is pretty straightforward to load in files that are BPMN 2.0 compliant. The option to load V...
What do you like most about Visio?
The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task and see the flow of the process.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visio?
One of the main problems with Visio is its licensing options and associated issues, which lead to discussions about the price with a Microsoft representative. If asked to rate the price, I would gi...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Visio
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

OmniLink
Thomas College, Hamburg Port Authority, Portigon AG, Conseil G_n_ral du d_partement des Hautes-Alpes, AAA Auto a. s., Commonwealth Financial Network, ICA, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company
Find out what your peers are saying about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. Visio and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.